


Our Best Wishes

by ThePaintingThatAteParis



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Rewrite, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:07:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23166733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePaintingThatAteParis/pseuds/ThePaintingThatAteParis
Summary: After the Battle for Mewni, Marco returns home and tries to put his life back together while Star stays in the castle to help her parents restore peace to the kingdom. Their paths will cross sooner than they would've imagined though, and they will trigger a chain of events that will change Mewni -and probably Earth- forever.A rewrite of seasons 3 and 4 which will both borrow plotlines from the show as well as start completely new ones in an attempt to "fix" the elements that were abandoned all through the show's last 2 seasons.
Relationships: Marco Diaz/Jackie Lynn Thomas, Star Butterfly/Marco Diaz, Star Butterfly/Tom Lucitor
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	1. Sophomore Jump

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is kind of an exercise in storytelling. I really want to be able to write my own stories someday, and I thought "fixing" what used to be one of my favorite shows would be a good practice tool.  
> FULL DISCLAMER: It's perfectly fine if you liked how the show ended. I personally feel it got out of hand pretty quickly after BfM, and all the shipping drama became the centerpiece of the story while very important plot threads were given a weak resolution at best and abandoned at worst. This doesn't mean there won't be shipping drama (trust me, there will), I just think I can execute it better and tie it to the story without it being distracting. 
> 
> Also, I won't be taking into consideration the magic book of spells. I know it's canon, but there are so many things that wouldn't make sense for the story I want to write that I decided to leave it out of my headcanon completely, although I will be borrowing some ideas from it to help the worldbuilding. Anyways, I would really love it if you guys left some feedback! <3

Marco hadn't really had the time to give much thought to the fact that his life had completely changed while he was away. Well, perhaps that wasn't entirely true... no, his life had changed right before he went away, and now he had come back to a completely different world that the one he left behind when he decided to follow Star into Mewni, as if his dimensional scissors had somehow malfunctioned and brought him to a parallel Earth where his life was turned upside down... or rather, wasn't.

His life had been a total roller-coaster since the moment Star came into his life, and now suddenly she was nowhere to be seen and he went back to being a totally normal teenager with friends, classes and a girlfriend. Oh yeah, he had a girlfriend now. And not just any girlfriend, she was none other than Jackie Lynn Thomas, the girl he'd been admiring from afar since they were toddlers. It was borderline bizarre for him to think of her as his girlfriend, especially since their romance had had little to no time to develop before he disappeared soon after their end of the school year party. That little stunt he pulled would've angered any other girl, but Jackie had been super chill about it, and listened with a smile while Marco told her about all the things he'd seen and done during his weeks in Mewni, even if she probably didn't understand half of it. He was now sure she understood exactly why he'd left like that.

 _Alright Diaz, enough reminiscing. Let's go!_ he thought as he looked up and saw his old high-school, the doors wide open and an uncharacteristic absence of people blocking the entrance, as the building was somehow trying to welcome him specifically. Walking all the way there without Star by his side had already felt weird enough, but actually being there was even more strange for him.

 _It feels like it's been an eternity since I saw this place for the last time..._ he thought before finally mustering up the courage to start climbing the stairs.

Before he could take the first step, however, a familiar face slid from in between his feet and locked eyes with him from the floor. "Late on your first day? Tsk tsk tsk, you're such a rebel, Diaz."

"Gah-!" Marco let out before quickly composing himself and assuming a battle stance for the few seconds that it took him to recognize the face. "O-oh, it's you. What are you doing on the floor, Janna?"

"Not much," the dark-skinned girl answered with her usual smug smile. "I've been chilling down there for a while, waiting to see if you finally decided to show your face around here!" She got up with surprising elegance and dusted her skirt before booping Marco on the nose while making a goofy noise with her mouth.

"Stop!" for as ready as he'd been a second ago, the sudden contact took him by surprise. Truth was, he had purposefully arrived a bit late to avoid bumping into anyone, because Marco being Marco, he was a bit too nervous about showing up there like nothing had happened. However, as he was rubbing his nose, he couldn't help but to smile at the absurdity of the situation. "It's... been a while, huh?"

"Sure has," she replied. Funnily enough, she was acting like it'd been a week or so since they last saw each other, even if she knew pretty well that he was involved in a war for the future of a magical kingdom, and Marco didn't know if she was doing it on purpose to annoy him or if it was an honest reaction. You could never know with Janna. "You're not going to get me to admit I've missed you, but I kinda didn't have anyone to mess with during the Summer, soo... yeah, I got a lot of teasing to catch on to, so get ready!"

Marco rolled his eyes as he continued to walk up the stairs, his companion following soon. "I'm going to have some trouble readjusting to all this after these few months, Janna," he explained as he looked down. "Please don't make it harder than it needs to be."

"Can't promise anything," she replied with a shrug. "I can't believe you came back to this lame-o town instead of, you know, staying in Mewni forever. Speaking of, where's Star?"

"She's... busy," Marco said simply without looking away from the floor. "You know how it is, she's a Princess and she has to deal with princessy stuff. Even if I could just stay in Mewni, I don't think we could've hung out."

There was a way more complicated answer, of course, but he didn't have the time or patience to explain to Janna that a megalomaniac lizard had tried to destroy all magic, leaving Mewni in ruins and making travelling between dimensions way less safe, which were the two reasons why Star couldn't come back to Earth, at least for the moment. That and she literally almost _died_ , but Marco didn't like to think about that part. Even though he knew they would be able to see each other soon enough, the mention of his best friend did make him feel a bit nostalgic all of a sudden, knowing nothing would be the same... in more ways that he would ever bring himself to admit.

"Makes sense," Janna said absent-mindedly, having already forgotten about Marco's incredible journey and now scrolling through her text messages. They kept walking for a while through the deserted main hall, right past the giant banner hanging from the ceiling, the words 'Welcome Back Students!' written in dark green against the yellow surface with a level of sloppiness that only the students of Echo Chreek Academy could accomplish.

"So," Marco felt strangely compelled to continue the conversation, as they still had a few minutes before arriving at their classroom and he felt kind of awkward just walking in silence with Janna, "my dad told me you came by to borrow some karate movies. Did you like them?"

"Eh, they were fine I guess," she replied, but her growing mischievous smile told Marco there was something more about it. "It was mostly an excuse to go to your room and look through your clothes and stuff."

"Janna!" he exclaimed, only to cover his own mouth immediately after when he realized there were people already in their classrooms. To be fair, he should've seen this coming. 

"Relax, I didn't take anything," she said, waving her hand like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Nice heart-printed undies, though. Never would've imagined."

Marco's face lit up, a familiar feeling whenever he was around her, although for all the wrong reasons. And to be fair, looking through his underwear drawer was creepy even for Janna standards. Fortunately for his dignity, though, they soon arrived at the door marked with the number indicated in their schedules.

"Oh, by the way," she said, stopping her arm halfway through its way towards the knob. She put her hand in her pocket and produced a white and blue card that looked strangely familiar. "I've been waiting all summer to bring you this back, so you're welcome!"

Marco took a good look at the item, and soon the realization hit him: it was his social security card. "W-what? How long have you had this?"

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to," Janna said, winking at him before opening the door to the classroom, ending the discussion then and there.

Marco sighed. His morning was going to be very, very long...

~~~

Tenth grade was weird, Marco thought while looking around the classroom as the teacher spewed some probably unimportant information and realizing roughly half of his classmates had picked a different subject. He was not one to slack off, but once more this was his first day and he was having trouble coming to terms with the idea that his life was going to be pretty much devoid of magic for a while, and to be honest he was a bit bummed out that Jackie was not in the same class as him, which he probably should've asked about instead of droning on and on about his amazing summer adventure. Yet another thing to add to the pile of things he had to apologize for. Yikes.

On the bright side, Ferguson and Alfonzo were in his class, and they had spent the last few minutes trying to get his attention. Trying not to laugh at their shenanigans, Marco had gestured them to talk to him after class, but they either hadn't understood him or had completely ignored him, because not only did they not stop, they also started becoming more and more obvious until the teacher told them to quiet down, which brought a half smile to Marco's face. There was something about their excitement that turned his initial boredom into some kind of enjoyment, and that only got better and better as the classes continued.

Contrary to what he'd imagined, his adventure on Mewni hadn't managed to completely desensitize him to normal Earth stuff... although he could not stop feeling like something was wrong, as if his brain was having trouble reconciling with the idea of going back to school without being able to see Star when he looked at the desk besides him, which was for better or for worse now being used by Janna. By the time lunch rolled around, however, he had reached a conclusion: boy, was it good to be back.

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Ferguson exclaimed after Marco voiced that thought. "I thought we were going to have to start school without you, man!"

"You should've at least called us when you got back!" Alfonzo said as soon as he sat back beside his two best friends with a tray full of food. "We're used to you going on adventures with Star, but you were gone for far too long!"

"I'm really sorry, guys," Marco apologized as he rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment. "I really didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I only told Jackie at the time. I saw a ton of weird things during this summer, and I kinda needed time to process all of it too!"

"Oh, you gotta tell us everything that happened to you!" Ferguson managed to say while stuffing his mouth with a burger. "I went surfing and almost got eaten by a shark!"

"Trust me, you're gonna need more than just a lunch break to hear the whole story," someone suddenly said behind Marco, making the boy flinch. He would've recognized Jackie's voice anywhere, and even if he hadn't she didn't give him any time to check, because she quickly slid a chair between him and Janna and sat down, giving one of her calm, warm smiles as she did. "He could write a book about all the things that happened to him this summer, right babe?"

 _Babe_. It was still uncanny to hear _the_ Jackie Lynn Thomas call him that, but it only made the butterflies in his stomach flutter faster. "Heh, y-yeah, totally." It was like every time they talked his brain resat and had to go through the entire process of assimilating the fact that she was his girlfriend now, but for some reason that made the whole experience a bit more special, and she somehow knew it. She didn't usually call him babe or sweetie or anything like that, mostly because she knew it was kind of embarrassing for him, but that was precisely why she decided to do it every once in a while. He was so entranced with his interaction with Jackie that he failed to acknowledge the worried look on Janna's face during their whole exchange.

"How have classes been?" he asked her, and she just shrugged.

"Same old, same old," she said. "I kinda miss you though. If I'd known we wouldn't be in the same class this year, I would've gotten together with you way sooner!"

 _If only you knew,_ Marco thought while laughing at the comment, but decided not to delve on the past too much, especially not in front of his friends. "Maybe it's for the best, you know. After all, I wouldn't want to distract you with my amazing looks during your first class!"

"Whoa whoa Diaz, you've gotten better at this!" Jackie laughed while elbowing him. "What, were you secretly going to flirting school all summer and the whole magic stuff is just a very creative cover?"

Once more, Marco was reminded why he liked his life on Earth so much, and he realized that perhaps readjusting to it wasn't going to be as hard as he thought...

"Hey, I need to go to the bathroom or something," Janna said out of nowhere, getting up before anyone had time to react. "Oh by the way, this summer I fell from a moving train and sustained heavy brain damage, could anyone help me get to the stalls? I don't remember where it is."

Marco frowned and opened his mouth to ask if this was a joke, but as soon as he raised his index finger Janna grabbed him by the wrist and forced him to stand up.

"How kind of you, Marco," she said unenthusiastically. "Come on, let's go."

She pulled him away from the table, and while nobody thought much of it, Jackie did give Marco a confused look as he was dragged away, to which he replied with a silent shrug before his girlfriend left his field of vision. As it turned out, Janna knew exactly where the bathroom was, because she dragged Marco directly towards and into it, and even if he felt kind of awkward going into the girls' bathroom, he was accustomed enough to his friend's shenanigans that he didn't even complain about it.

"What's gotten into you?" he asked, and as soon as she looked back at him he knew this wasn't one of her pranks. Janna looked serious, maybe even a bit nervous, and she was actively avoiding looking him in the eye.

"Okay, look," she began. "I wasn't gonna say anything because I wanted to keep things cool and I know how much you overthink literally everything and yadda yadda yadda, but I really can't just stay there and watch you... be Marco. Not while Jackie is here."

"What are you talking about?" the situation was getting more and more confusing for him, and he was started to get genuinely worried. "Things are totally cool with Jackie! Didn't you see?"

"You messed up bad, dude!" Janna exclaimed in a tone of voice Marco hadn't hear her use before. She quickly calmed down, though, and she gently grabbed Marco's shoulder. "Okay, look: Jackie may seem like she's super cool and not annoyed at all by the fact that you decided to vanish from the face of the Earth for several weeks without so much as a warning while chasing after another girl who had just happened to admit she had a crush on you like, the night after, but she really isn't."

She had to take a long breath after that one.

"B-but I didn't go chasing after Star!" Marco defended himself. "I only stayed in Mewni because there was some serious stuff going on and-"

"Yeah, _I_ know that," Janna spat. "Or at least I _think_ I know, because if it wasn't already clear enough you disappeared for weeks and you didn't even think about leaving a memo, you jerk!"

Marco opened his mouth to reply, but the words quickly had the desired effect on him and he started reconsidering his actions. He had apologized again and again to his girlfriend, but at the same time he'd always somehow thought he was kind of justified. He was saving the multiverse, after all, and who knows what would've happened if they hadn't defeated Toffee!

"Look," Janna spoke again. "Jackie was mega worried about you, and she couldn't understand why you disappeared like that! She didn't care about whatever magical misadventures you were living, she only knew that you were there one second and then the next you disappeared! Because when you do something like that, even if you think it's the right thing to do, people are going to get worried!"

"I..." Marco was speechless. He totally understood where Janna was coming from, and although he could easily excuse himself by saying he was busy, nothing would've stopped him from going back home and leaving a message at the very least. He had come to the surprisingly elusive realization that people of Earth didn't know or care about what was happening in Mewni, they only knew that he was missing. "I'm sorry, you're totally right. I'm really sorry, Janna, I never would've thought you guys would freak out so much about it... and that feels stupid now that I say it out loud."

Before he could say anything else, Janna closed the distance between them and gave him a surprisingly warm hug, something he certainly wasn't expecting from Janna of all people. While at first he was visibly confused, Marco soon returned the hug and even gave his friend a few pats in the back for good measure. It wasn't like her to display so much affection in one sitting, but that only emphasized how much she'd been worried about him, and upon realizing that Marco's guilt grew a bit more.

"We're your friends, you knucklehead," Janna said then, her head buried into his trademark red hoodie. "Of course we were going to get worried about you. Besides, I've already told you I want to keep your corpse so I can turn your head into one of those voodoo thingies."

"Oh, so you did miss me after all, huh?" Marco asked with a smug smile, quite relieved that Janna was back in-character, even if her outburst had been barely a minute long.

"This is the only show of affection you're gonna get from me for the next 100 years, Diaz. Don't push your luck."

"Got it. I'll shut up now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was debating with myself whether I should start the story with Marco or Star, and ended up deciding giving the fic a more relatable, down-to-earth approach would be way more fitting. This is more a reintroduction to the Earth characters than a proper chapter, because they're going to be around much more than in the show, which just ditched them after a while. I didn't really like how Marco became a jerk off screen and just started being super asshol-y about his time in Mewni, I don't think it really fits his character and it's just a way to get him back to Mewni as soon as possible. As I've said, however, Marco is going to stay on Earth for a while in this story, and we don't need to rush things.
> 
> I'm not a big fan of Ferguson and Alfonzo, but I really wanted to have Marco socializing with more people than Jackie and Janna. Also, I know it's weird to think that BfM took place during the whole Summer vacation, but the dialogue in Sophomore Slump strongly implies that Marco returned to Earth just before starting the new school year, so I'm going to keep it that way in case this creates some inconsistencies in the future.
> 
> Anyways, next chapter actually kickstarts the plot, so watch out for that!


	2. Dreamcatching

Ah, a day the beach... that was exactly the kind of relaxing vacations Star needed after everything that had happened. Just her and her floating air mattress, with no parents or monsters around to tell her what to do... she wasn't exactly sure _where_ she was, but it looked peaceful enough and she was welcoming the much needed rest.

Once she opened her eyes to see how far she was from the sand, however, she realized there was no sand anymore. Somehow, she had strayed away far enough from the mainland as to now be unable to see it, and her mattress was now floating in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

"Huh?" she frowned, removing the sunglasses she was wearing and frenetically looking around looking for a point of reference to no avail. When she instinctively reached for her wand, she realized it also was nowhere to be seen. She knew she wasn't the most attentive person in the world, but come on, there was no way she'd somehow managed to mess up this badly, right?

It was then she noticed the water was getting a bit too... green. "What the heck is happening here?" she cried as she spun around, once again trying in vain to orientate herself. "Marco! Mom! Dad? Is someone there?"

"Star!"

Star's eyes opened wide when she heard the voice. It sounded exactly like her father, but as she'd previously verified there was no human being in sight. For a moment she wondered if she was being pranked by Ponyhead, but then she heard her father calling her once more, taking her out of her train of thought.

"Star!" the voice sounded echoey and distorted, almost like he was-

 _Underwater?_ Star asked herself, and she shifted in the mattress so she could lean over the edge, towards the point where she'd heard the voice. She let out a disappointed sigh when she came face to face when her own reflection, however. _What's going on?_ she thought. _Can't I even enjoy a day at the beach without being interrupted by... wait._ She quickly noticed there was something wrong with her reflection, but before she could pinpoint exactly what it was, the reflection started to shift and reform itself, turning from her flesh-coloured, round face into a much more angular, almost animal-like light blue one. Similarly, the water around her had became way darker in a matter of seconds.

"Oh," was the only thing she was able to mutter before she started recognizing the sinister visage looking back at her. "Oh no no no no no no no."

She felt two hands made of a disgustingly familiar goo grabbing onto her shoulders and pulling her down, towards the water, and the only thing she heard was-

" ** _Surprise!_** "

And then, darkness.

For the few seconds it took Star to open her eyes, at least. When she did, she noticed a big pair of blue eyes staring back at her from just a few inches away, and Star being Star her first reaction was to panic.

"Aahh!" she yelled, pulling the intruder away and instinctively reaching for her wand... which fortunately this time was in its right place.

"AAARGHH!" River Butterfly cried, much louder and considerably less girlishly.

"Dad?" asked Star in confusion, casting her wand aside and allowing herself a few moments to return to reality, that very familiar voice still echoing through her mind.

After taking a few seconds to regain his breath, the King cleared his throat and approached Star once more, sitting by her side on the bed. "I'm sorry for frightening you honey, but you looked like you were having a bad dream," he explained, rubbing his platinum blonde, forked beard as he spoke. "Is everything all right? You know you can tell me anything!"

Star looked away, her surprised expression changing to a frustrated one almost immediately, "Actually, I've been having a ton of nightmares these past few days..." she admitted. "Toffee is in all of them. At first I just thought they would go away, but instead they started happening more and more, and they've been messing up my sleep schedule!"

"Aw, it's all right, sweetheart," her father said, reaching with his arm to ruffle his daughter's hair. "It's normal to have bad dreams after going through tough moments! I still have nightmares about the time that raccoon ate my birthday cake! You remember that, right?"

Star couldn't stop herself from giggling at the memory of his father running after the poor animal through the whole castle, trying to zap it with his magical staff. To be fair, though, Star had never really told her parents just how close she was to dying during her fight against Toffee, so she could forgive River for the insensitive and frankly absurd comparison. In fact, she hadn't told _anyone_ about it, since Marco left before she had a chance to, Glossaryck was gone, and while she loved Pony Head she wasn't really the kind of person she went to when she wanted to discuss serious matters.

"Anyways," River continued before getting up from the bed and covering Star's body with the blankets once more. "I came here to tell you that your mother and I know you've been working your butt off to help restore the castle, so we've agreed to let you do whatever you want today!"

"Are you sure?" Star wasn't very convinced. "Is mom really okay with that?"

She knew her mother had been really stressed out as of lately, and although she was clearly very happy to have Star back in the castle, there was obviously something worrying her, something she didn't want to talk to her about. Star was used to her mother keeping stuff from her, but after she almost died to one of her old enemies, she thought she at least deserved to be told about any possible threats that could be looming over the horizon. She didn't dwell to much on that feeling, though, knowing that if Moon had something to tell her she would probably do so at the right time. That's what she wanted to believe, at least.

"Your mother is concerned about some... grown-up stuff right now," River explained, and he certainly didn't look very convinced about his own statement. "There's not much work left to do anyways, so take a day off and enjoy yourself! After your mother is done with whatever she's dealing with, we can go on some well-deserved vacation!"

"Yeah... cool," Star replied in a very unenthusiastic way, and gave her father an even more unenthusiastic smile to drive the point home. Of course, River failed to notice any of that and proceeded to storm off her room, leaving Star alone with her thoughts.

For what felt like the millionth time that week, she really really wished Marco could be with her in that moment. Without her even realizing, her eyes gravitated towards the dimensional scissors over her night stand, and for a fraction of an instant she seriously considered the idea of grabbing them and paying her best friend a surprise visit.

"No, Star! Remember what Mom told you!" she scolded herself, as she usually did when she was about to break her promise to be a more responsible princess. Her dimensional scissors were one of the few pairs that were still functioning, as the Magic High Commission had deactivated most of the devices while magic returned to normal. Even so, Moon had warned Star that using the scissors could cause a breach in space-time, because as Hekapoo put it, magic was still 'glitchy'.

Of course, there was also that _other_ reason why she couldn't just sneak out to see Marco, but as she saw it that reason had nothing to do with personal responsibility, and she much preferred to excuse herself with the first one.

Star got up and looked at her reflection in the mirror, secretly scared that it would also turn into a maniacal lizard man. "Marco will be fine without me" she told herself, and she even smiled a bit when she remembered her time at her best-friend-turned-crush' house. The last week and a half had not been kind to her, since she had little time to think about her true feelings about Marco and not having him around to clear things out certainly did not help reducing the stress she was already feeling. Besides, none of her friends at Mewni were particularly good at giving relationship advice, and she was definitely _not_ going to ask Kelly.

 _Since I have the day off,_ she thought, _I should probably start finding a way to work around these nightmares, or they're going to drive me nuts! Ugh, I wish Glossaryck was here..._

She stood in place for a few seconds, looking at her own reflection with a frown, desperately trying to remember if the book of spells had any mention of sleep-related magic. She could've sworn she remembered something about dreams in Celena's chapter, but she never took the time to memorize it... however, she did remember something else. It wasn't an ideal solution, and it was going to be very, very awkward, but... _No, now's not the time to act like a dumb teenager!_ she told herself. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and if she had the chance to get rid of one of the three things that were stressing her out, she had to take it!

She knew what she had to do.

"Mirror," she said out loud, closing her eyes and hesitating a bit before uttering the following order, "call Tom."

~~~

"Uh... Queen Moon, people are starting to get upset with the whole scissors situation," Rhombulus explained, rubbing the back of his crystal neck with one of his spider arms. "Whatever's going to happen, I don't think we need to worry about her going back to Mewni anyways."

The Queen took a moment to reply. He could not see her face, as she was staring directly into the shattered crystal, a broken reflection of her own visage staring back at her with the same concern the original was displaying. She really wasn't in the mood to argue with any of the members of the Magic High Commission, much less Rhombulus, and she conveyed this fact to him by letting out a long, tired sigh.

"Eclipsa is a dangerous and unpredictable woman," she said, her back still turned to him. "We cannot _know_ if she has plans to return to Mewni, and because of that we need to be on high level alarm until we find her."

"B-but your majesty, what is she even going to do without a wand?" the blue creature questioned. "And I mean, the multiverse is huuuuuge! What are we supposed to do if we don't find her?"

"I believe I know what is best for my people, Rhombulus, and my _family_ " Moon declared in a harsher tone, and this time she turned around to lock eyes with him. The crystal monster blinked, perfectly aware that the Queen didn't exactly like him and that he was just making everything worse. "You just said that she does not have a wand. Well, ignoring the fact that the so imagine what would happen if we allow her to travel through dimensions at will. Imagine _who_ she would go after."

Her subordinate looked down, visibly embarrassed of not having considered that possibility. "Y-you're right, of course... but what if you kept the wand instead of the Princess? Wouldn't that make her safer?"

"No," Moon replied simply, once more turning her back to him. "Star needs the wand now more than ever. I can tell she is under a lot of stress, and even if I myself am too busy to help her, I need her to know I trust her with that responsiblity. I have... made the mistake of doubting her before, and I am not planning on making that mistake again."

"Alright..." the Magic High Commission member muttered, fiddling with his two snake-hands."I-I'm sorry your majesty, I was just trying to help."

Moon sighed once more, only this time it conveyed sadness rather than exhasperation. She turned around and slowly made her way towards Rhombulus.

"I... understand that you are upset abut Lekhmet," she said in the warmest tone of voice she was able to achieve at that moment. "We all are. Just... let me handle things while the kingdom recovers, alright? The last thing we need is yet another magical threat to the kingdom."

Even if his face was quite literally just a crystal with one barely eye-shaped hole, Moon knew that her guess had been spot on. "Al-alright," he replied simply, and this time he was the one who turned his back to her. "I'll be working out, if you need me..."

She let him walk away, knowing that it was best to leave him alone for the moment. If she had anything to discuss with the Magic High Commission, she'd talk to Hekapoo or Omnitraxus Prime later, as they were considerable more reasonable and understanding than Rhombulus was, even more now that he was an emotional mess. Once more, she looked up to the place where Eclipsa the Queen of Darkness had once been crystallized, and she regretted every decision that had led her to that exact moment.

"I cannot believe I was foolish enough to believe she would not break free..." she muttered, now sure that her subordinate could not hear her. "If I had been more cautious, none of this would have happened..."

~~~

"Alright, you know I wouldn't've called you here if it wasn't a life or death situation."

"Yep."

"Because if there was even the slightest chance of anyone ever being able to solve this for me, I would've taken it."

"Okay...?"

"And don't get any ideas. I only called you because I need your help, so please don't be weird about it and if you ever _think_ of trying something, I-"

"Star, _I get it_."

Tom was sitting on Star's bed, clothed in his usual casual outfit. His ex-girlfriend, on the other hand, apparently hadn't even considered getting dressed a necessity, as she was still in her pajamas, but she did eat breakfast while she waited for him to show up. Fortunately for the two of them, travelling within the same dimension was safe, and since Tom didn't require a pair of interdimensional scissors to travel he was in no real danger travelling from the Underworld to Mewni.

"Okay, okay," Star replied, then cleared her throat. "Sorry, I've been a bit stressed out lately."

"I'm not gonna do anything weird, Star," the demon prince said, looking down at his feet as they hanged from the edge of the bed. "I promise."

"You said that the last thirty times," she retorted in a disappointed tone, and once again reminding herself that she was doing this because it was a necessity. "Anyways, did you bring the thingy?"

"I've already told you, it's called a _dreamcatcher_ ," he corrected her, then proceeded to grab his backpack from the floor and produced a small, black metallic pendant embedded with a red, round stone. "How did you even remember I have this, anyways? I didn't remember." Star wasn't listening to him anymore, now completely mesmerized by the beauty of the red gem. "I had to look through aaaaall my weird teenager stuff just to find it, which is not a comfortable experience for any sane person to do, so I hope you appreciate my effort."

"Sooo preeetty..." Star mumbled, too busy looking at the dreamcatcher to pay him any mind. It looked like there was something moving inside the embedded gem, as if the inside was liquid and somehow some kind of spirit fish had ended up trapped there. "So, you used this to get rid of your weird nightmares, right?"

"Sure did," her ex replied. "Works like a charm, but I have to warn you that you're gonna need to do some-"

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah," Star dismissed him, then grabbed his arm and started dragging him out of the room, too eager to . "You can wait outside while I get rid of this thing. Thank you very much, Tom!"

"Hey, wait a second!" Tom stopped her in her tracks as she was opening the door and took the dreamcatcher from her. "Star, you need someone to perform the ritual on you while you're sleeping. I thought that's why you called me!"

"What?" his ex raised an eyebrow in confusion In her mind, that was raising too many red flags: she didn't want Tom to perform any kind of ritual on her. "No no no no no, I thought you just put this on and it... I don't know, did its thing! I don't want you doing weird stuff in my room, while I'm sleeping! You may try to put a curse on me or something!"

"I _told_ you I wasn't gonna-" Tom closed his mouth, then took a deep breath before speaking again. "What I mean is, you need someone to be there for you so the dreamcatcher can... catch the dream, you know? And if what you told me is true, it's gonna take a bit more than its magic to get rid of that nightmare..."

Star scoffed. This whole situation really fit Tom's modus operandi a bit too well: he would be nice to her, agree to help her and then stab her in the back with some kind of idiotic plan designed to make her fall in love with him again. _Well he's going to be disappointed this time, because after the stunt he pulled during the Blood Moon Ball I can't trust him with anything,_ she thought as she reached out to give him back the pendant. However, Tom started talking again before she even had the time to speak her mind.

"But if you really don't want me here, I guess I can teach someone else how to do the ritual," he said, looking into the hallway. "You said your dad was in the castle, right? Maybe he can help us..."

The princess frowned and looked down at the charm, not very sure what to make of what he'd just said. It wasn't like Tom to offer alternative solutions to a problem, because his plans depended on Star taking the bait, but perhaps he was faking it... she knew he was very good at that. She looked at him again, and there was no way he wasn't being honest, because his face was one of true concern, one that Star hadn't seen him put on since...

"Okay, okay, I'll bite," Star concluded, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him back into the room before closing the door. "I'll let you do the ritual thing. But if you even try to-"

"I won't," Tom interjected once again, raising his two hands in the air to show Star his palms. "I only came here because you needed my help, and once I'm done with the ritual I'll leave. I promise."

Instead of replying, the princess put on the pendant and walked up to her bed with the intention of getting it over with as quickly as possible. She laid on the bed, not even bothering to cover her body with the blankets, and looked directly at Tom with the most serious expression he'd ever seen in her face.

"Alright, we're doing this," she said, and he instantly knew she was being dead serious. "Tell me what I need to do, Tom."

"You... you only need to fall asleep, really," he replied, scratching the crook of his neck as he approached. "When the dream starts, you're going to feel the dreamcatcher doing its thing, and you're probably going to hear a ton of weird stuff, but you gotta keep your eyes closed, alright? That's the only rule: if you open your eyes, something very bad could happen."

Star nodded and immediately closed her eyes. Tom sat on the other side of the bed, his head turned around so he could watch over her.

"Uh... do you want me to bring you something or...?" he started to ask, then noticed that the princess was already sneezing. "Aaaand you're already asleep. Alright."

~~~

Ah, a day the beach... that was exactly the kind of relaxing vacations Star needed after everything that had happened. Just her and her floating air mattress, with no parents or monsters around to tell her what to do... she wasn't exactly sure _where_ she was, but it looked peaceful enough and she was welcoming the much ne-

_Wait._

"It's happening again," she said, narrowing her eyes and getting up on the mattress, which was a surprisingly easy task. "But this time I'm ready, you- you overgrown lizard!"

She could no longer see land, and the water was started to turn into Toffee's dark green goo like it did the previous few times. Star looked directly at her reflection in the water, waiting for the villain to show up and attack her, but now that she was anticipating it, the few seconds it usually took him to manifest became longer.

"I'm not afraid of you..." she muttered, clenching her fists and getting ready to do what was needed. She didn't know exactly what was going to happen, but she knew that she wasn't about to be defeated by a stupid dream! It wasn't even real!

"Alright Star, you're supposed to be able to hear me!" she heard Tom's voice coming from all places at the same time. "The dreamcatcher is activated, so you should close your eyes now! And remember, whatever you do, _don't open them_."

For a few seconds she considered not to do it, as her common sense was screaming her to stop following orders from the person that had tried to manipulate her so many times before. However, there was something in his voice that made Star think that she could trust him this time... and she was aware that that also had happened a ton of times before, but this was the first time in years her ex felt... genuine.

"I hope this works, Tom," she replied finally, although she knew he would not be able to hear her. She did as she was told, and as soon as she felt her eyes closing she noticed that she no longer felt the mattress under her feet, nor could she hear the sound of the marine breeze around her. In fact, she stopped feeling anything altogether for a few seconds, not even aware of where her body was supposed to be.

 _Is it... working?_ she asked herself as the black void of complete sensitive deprivation swallowed her whole. However, before she could find an answer to her questions, she started hearing things once more... and they were all very familiar. At first, she wasn't able to tell exactly why they sounded familiar, but after a few seconds of attentive hearing -she didn't have anything else to do, after all- she realized that all those sounds were things she'd heard before in her dreams. She was able to identify the particular neighing of that strange one eyed unicorn she'd dreamed about a couple of weeks ago, and the quiet but unnerving steps of the rats that had plagued her dreams after she lost her book of spells.

Next, she started hearing voices. Most accurately, _his_ voice: the things he'd said to her when she thought she was going to die echoed in her head for the millionth time, and she pressed her eyes shut as hard as she could, clenching her fists once again and repeating to herself that she wasn't afraid as Toffee's voice filled her mind

And then, another voice. A sweet, worried-sounding voice that took her completely by surprise.

"Star?"

She didn't even remember that dream, but it felt so real...

"M-marco?"

...that she couldn't stop herself from opening her eyes.

At first, she couldn't understand what she was seeing. It was like a red stream of energy coming out of her head and going directly into the crimson stone embedded into the dreamcatcher, and it glowed so much that it made the entire room look red. Beside her, Tom was sitting and muttering something in a strange language that Star could only guess was his native one. He was holding two candles, one in each hand, and he was staring into empty space, his eyes completely blank

"Uh..." Star mumbled, knowing that she had ignored the only instruction he'd given her.

"Star!" Tom yelled, his focus shattering the second he realized she was awake. "What are you doing? You're not supposed to open your eyes yet! Now we gotta-"

Before he could finish his sentence, however, the stream of energy began to shift, and in a last ditch effort Tom reached out to grab the dreamcatcher. Before he could reach it, a glowing red paw materialized from inside the stream and grabbed it instead, and before any of the two teens could do anything it crushed the red stone.

"Uh.. what's happening?" Star asked, her eyes widen in terror.

"I- I don't know!" her ex replied, frantically looking around him for some way to reverse the spell. "This never happened when I was using it!"

Right before their eyes, the energy beam started to shift once more, this time spawning two legs and a tail, along with yet another arm... only this one had only three fingers. At the same time Star began realizing exactly what was happening, the beam finished transforming into a fully grown, exact replica of Toffee, with the obvious exception of his body being entirely red and semi-transparent, made from the same red energy that was emitting from Star's head barely a few seconds ago. It fell on the floor besides Star's bed, and after a few seconds of standing still, it turned around and started walking towards them.

"Ooooh geez..." Tom whined. Star grabbed his arm and jumped out of bed, dragging him him behind her, and pulled out her wand to fight the monstrous entity.

"Poor little Butterfly," the Toffee replica said in a smug tone as it started getting closer. Its voice sounded exactly like his, and that only made it more terrifying for Star. "You've lost your wings."

"Shut up, weirdo!" Star cried before pointing the wands toward the monster. "Eat some rainbow blast!"

As usual, a powerful rainbow-colored beam shot out from the wand and connected with the Toffee replica... only to clip right through him without causing any apparent damage. Star opened her mouth in disbelief, but she still had a few seconds before it reached them, so she decided to cast a second spell.

"O-okay... how about a rolling thunder lightning blast?" she yelled, and a blue blast made of lightning came out of the wand. Unfortunately, it had the exact same effect as the last spell, and the Toffee clone had almost reached them. "W-why aren't my spells working? What's going on?"

"You can't hurt him because he's not real!" Tom explained from behind her. "He's just part of a dream!"

"Oh, but he can hurt us?" Star turned around to look at her ex, raising her eyebrows. "That's very convenient for him and I don't like it!"

"You need to confront him, Star!" the demon prince said. "The only way you can defeat him is by letting him inside your head again!"

"B-but then I'll go back to having those stupid nightmares! I can't concentrate on my royal duties if I have to be worrying about-"

"We'll figure something out!" Tom cut her off. "Now let's focus on not getting killed by this thing, okay?"

 _He's right,_ Star thought. _I got us into this mess, now I need to fix it before anyone gets hurt_. She turned around to face the red creature, and as soon as she locked eyes with it, she started feeling weak in the knees.

"G-go away!" she cried. "No matter how powerful you are, you're not going to do anything to us!"

The monster looked at her with disdain, not even acknowledging her threat. "Hello, Princess," it said. "You don't even recognize your own magic when you're swimming in it."

 _Wait a second,_ Star told herself. _He's just... repeating the things Toffee said to me! He can't even come up with his own words!_ The obvious realization hit her just then and there: the creature was not Toffee, it was a bad imitation of him. That, in all honesty, made it way less scary than it original it was for her.

"You're just some stupid dream! I'm not going to let you hurt anyone anymore!" Star cried, getting closer to the replica. The creature was visibly surprised, finally being found out, and it tried to back away. "Oh no no no, I'm not letting you go just like that, no sir!" the princess continued. "I know I'm scared of you. I know you've been inside my head all this time. But you're gone! You don't exist! So I won't let you ruin my life anymore!"

"You don't make the plans?" the monster tried once more quoting the deceased lizard, but this time Star wasn't having any of it. "Only I know how t-this all turns out?"

Star continued walking towards it, mimicking the way it had cornered her and Tom, until they reached the other end of of her room. "Hey, jerk, guess what?" she said, barely loud enough for the energy construct to hear her. She then raised her torso and looked straight at its eyes, before using her head in the most literal way imaginable by delivering a powerful headbutt at the same time she cried " _Surprise!_ "

The creature disappeared with a flash of light, and the next thing Star felt was the pain in her head after she was launched backwards, flying in the air and landing on top of her bed. The red light had completely disappeared from Star's room, leaving exactly as it was before the whole incident... with the quite noticeable exception of two spell-sized holes in the wall.

"Ow..." Star whined, rubbing her head without even bothering to get up. "That hurt..."

"Star!" Tom exclaimed before getting up from his hiding place -he'd been hiding under the bed while Star fought her nightmare- and running towards her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah..." she replied. "I-I'm sorry Tom, I really messed this up..."

"Don't apologize to me," he said with a light shrug. "You were the one who wanted to get rid of her dream, and now... well, now the dreamcatcher's destroyed. I could get another one, but I don't know if they sell that model anoymore..."

Star frowned. Not because she had not been able to get rid of her recurring nightmare, but because she had ruined the only nice thing Tom had done for her in _years_. "Hey, don't worry about it. I don't think I want to do this again anyways... I'm just sorry I broke your dreamcatcher. I opened my eyes beause I... well, there's a ton of things in my mind, and I heard Marco's voice and... I don't know! I can't think straight these days because of everything that's going on at the same time and... I just don't know."

They stood in awkward silence for a few seconds, Tom ruffling his own hair and averting his gaze and Star fiddling with her wand. Before long, however, the demon prince decided to take the first step and lay by her side on the bed, looking at the ceiling. Before Star could even open her mouth to ask what he was doing, he spoke.

"Do you wanna... talk about it?" he asked, and he surprisingly sounded a bit scared. "I mean, you could always try some other magical junk to clear your head, but if I learned something in therapy is that there's no better way to de-stress than to let it all out..."

Star blinked, and she considered the offer for a few seconds. Tom wasn't exactly the first person she would think of when heart-to-heart chats were involved, but... this was actually the first time in a long, long time her ex had asked her to talk things out... and did he just mention therapy? She looked at him, and in that moment she didn't see the jealous ex who was constantly trying to manipulate her to regain her love. No, in that moment she saw exactly what she needed the most in the world right then: a friend.

A smile soon appeared on her face.

"Yeah," she replied softly. "I... I think I do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna level with you here, Pony Head showed up in the first draft of this chapter, but I realized that I'm terrible at coming up with dialogue for her so I'd rather have her pop up later down the line, after re-watching some episodes to get an idea of exactly how she talks. If there is a single human being in the universe who appreciates her existence, I'm sorry. Not for not including her, but because for some reason you like Ponyhead.
> 
> NEXT UP: Marco decides to take Jackie on the best date ever to compensate for what he did, but things don't go as planned...


End file.
